As we celebrate the start of another year, many of us take time to reflect, create goals and make resolutions. The beginning of the year is a great time to do this and we feel like we have the opportunity for both a clean slate and a fresh start. While Mitch Joel’s book Ctrl Alt Delete was released more than six months ago, the topic of making a fresh start and rebooting both business and career is timely.

Mitch Joel is a marketing expert who has run his own agency (Twist Image) for more than ten years and is an influential blogger at Six Pixels of Separation. If you’ve visited here before, you know that his weekly podcast is one of my favorites. He’s a great interviewer with a keen marketing mind and he always has a grasp on what’s happening in the world of marketing, business and technology.

Ctrl Alt Delete is a book divided into two sections: the first part focuses on how businesses need to and are currently rebooting. The second, focuses on us, the business and marketing professional.

In the first section, Joel describes how brands are shifting toward more direct relationships with consumers. He uses Apple and their retail stores as an example and notes that “Apple didn’t start in the retail business to compete with other consumer electronics stores; they went into retail for the direct relationship with their customers.”

One way businesses, brands and organizations create more direct relationships is through social media and the creation of their own media channels. Red Bull is a great example of this.

Another way brands are rebooting is by shifting from a broadcast mindset to one where immediate value is being provided to consumers. A prime example of this is when brands use smartphone apps to provide immediate value to its customers at a time when they need it. Some of the brands that stand out include LEGO, Nationwide Insurance, Proctor & Gamble and Nike.

Joel also shares insights on how brands use a wealth of data to target and attract customers and the shift to a one-screen world (a world where television, computer and smartphone screens are beginning to be used by everyone for the same purpose).

Information in this first section gives readers a better understanding of what’s happening in the world of business and a clue about what’s about to happen.

In the second section, Joel provides practical steps for marketing and business pros to reboot and stay relevant in the ever-shifting world of work.

First, Joel encourages readers to take a digital-first posture. In Joel’s mind this means that, “the first place your consumers go when making a business decision is to their computers, smartphones and/or tablets. This should be your default posture, as well.” He understands this is not an easy task for some marketers…but consumers are already there.

He also encourages us to take a more “squiggly” career path. The days of working at one company are disappearing and the new normal is for the average worker to have several different career changes over a lifetime. This can be very unsettling and uncertain. What I enjoyed about Joel’s perspective is that he sees this uncertainty as a positive and that it offers workers the opportunity to focus on projects and work they’re passionate about. Through his own experience, he describes this uncertainty in a glass-half full manner.

Joel also provides a plethora of valuable tools and suggestions for ways that we, as business and marketing professionals, can make ourselves more marketable. These suggestions are helpful and likely to get readers excited about the possibilities ahead.

He doesn’t promise this will be easy…but the opportunity for career success and satisfaction is there if we’re ready to embrace it.

As a marketing professional who has adopted a digital mindset, I enjoyed Ctrl Alt Delete. If you’re a marketing and/or business professional who’s not quite sure about what’s ahead but looking for the best ways to prepare for this uncertainty, pick up a copy of Ctrl Alt Delete. It’s a quick and informative read.

How about you…as a professional, what new skills have you learned to stay ahead in your industry? I’d love to hear about them.

A couple weeks ago, while driving home from work, I tuned into the rebroadcast of Fresh Air on my local NPR station. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Terry Gross interview astronaut Chris Hadfield. Truthfully, I wasn’t too aware of Mr. Hadfield. I do remember viewing his version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” from the International Space Station which became a YouTube hit and generated more than 19 million views.

However, I was filled with a sense of child-like wonder and awe as I listened to Hadfield describe what life was like in space and the amount of courage, preparation and dedication it takes to pull off a typical mission. I was also blown away hearing Hadfield’s eloquent, almost poetic description of the views of earth from the International Space Station.

Recently, Hadfield released a book, “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth.” It’s the type of book I wouldn’t typically read, but it will immediately go to the top of my reading list.

Whether you’re a marketing pro, teacher, engineer or fast food employee, I highly recommend you listen to the Terry Gross interview with Chris Hadfield. It will expand and add perspective to your thinking and give you a deeper appreciation for the risks astronauts take in the name of science.

“Hero” and “Rock Star” are words that are overused in the media and today’s society. After listing to the Fresh Air interview there’s no doubt in my mind that Chris Hadfield is both.

Creativity is one of those ideas that brings about a different range of emotions for different people. For some, creativity feels elusive…just out of reach and difficult to experience. For others, creativity is something encouraged and expressed on a regular basis. I had a chance to read Austin Kleon‘s Steal Like and Artist recently and enjoyed his take on adding and experiencing more creativity in our lives.

What I enjoyed about Kleon’s book is the premise that all ideas are not original. Whenever we feel pressure to come up with something, we need to realize that very few ideas are ever truly original. According to Kleon, “what a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.”

Knowing this can be liberating for artists, thinkers and the average person looking to create “the next big thing” or a better something.

Here are three ideas from the book that I enjoyed…

Start Copying

Kleon argues that successful people and artists are not necessarily original. They had influences that shaped their work. This includes everyone from the Beatles to artists like Salvador Dali and athletes like Kobe Bryant and more. He invites readers to copy others’ and perform a sort of “reverse-engineering” which is like a “mechanic taking apart a car to see how it works.”

Important to note that copying does not mean plagiarizing. It means allowing yourself to be influenced by others’ creative work. I know I have been influenced and inspired by countless musicians, writers, artists, photographers and chefs (especially my mother). How does this influence my work? I’m not sure…but the sum of these influences is me. And my influences and body of work continue to evolve.

Step Away From the Screen

“We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops.” – John Cleese

Kleon argues that, in order to become more creative, we need to step away from our computer. He believes that we need more movement in our lives…whether it be strumming a guitar, playing with clay or physically shifting papers. He believes in analog first, then digital. This movement allows us to gain a different perspective and make different connections in our mind.

Kleon also goes on to explain how he has two workstations…one analog for pens, markers, paper, sticky notes and one digital for his computer and other electronic gadgets. He keeps them separate and the analog workstation is where he generates most of his ideas and the digital workstation is where he edits these ideas.

Choose What to Leave Out

In the information-loaded world we live in, Kleon believes that it is more important than ever that we create some constraints and leave certain information out of our minds and our work. Too much information and too many influences may paralyze and overload us.

I like his quote…”In the end, creativity isn’t just the things we put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out.”

Steal Like an Artist is a quick, fun read broken down into bit-sized nuggets of wisdom. Filled with drawings, quotes and reverse type, it invites us to think of creativity a little differently. If you’re in need of a creative tune up or looking to try something a little different in any aspect of your life, pick up this book.

How about you…do you have any ideas that have helped you become a more interesting, effective person? Please share…I’d love to hear from you.

I am part of a book club with a small group of friends and we’re currently reading David Copperfield from Charles Dickens. Truthfully, I was a bit intimidated by the sheer length of the book, 974 pages including notes in the Penguin Classic paperback version. I was also concerned that the language and writing style from a book published in 1850 would hold my interest for those 900+ pages.

One thing I have discovered and love about being part of a book club is that I’m exposed to books I would not ordinarily choose to read on my own. Hearing my friends’ appreciation for Dickens’ writing has motivated me to continue reading even though there have been times I’ve wanted to give up because I’ve been too busy (or lazy?) to read it.

The other thing that has motivated me to continue reading the book is that I realize I have options…options in the way I can read the book. I picked up the paperback version from my local library. Slightly yellowed from age, the book feels a bit heavy and I notice the small amount of white space within the pages. Do I really want to read this thing? Am I going to feel like carrying this around in my backpack in my travels?

Then, an idea. While I don’t have a Kindle, Nook or iPad, I realize I have a Kindle app on my iPhone and I’ve read a couple shorter books on it. I download a free version of the book onto my iPhone and then make a decision. I decide to read the digital version of the book on my iPhone to and from work and while traveling on public transportation and read the paperback version when I’m at home.

So far, I’m enjoying this option and it is working well. While I would prefer a larger screen than my iPhone’s, it does the trick – for now. I still have a lot of catching up to do compared to my friends’ progress, but now I have no excuse why I cannot read David Copperfield.

Related to this print vs. digital reading debate that I’ve been wrestling with, I attended the printing industry’s largest American trade show last week, Graph Expo. In my high school days, I took three years of print shop and helped our school produce it’s yearbook. For a short time, I aspired to be the printing industry’s biggest pre-press superstar. After a short stint working at a small commercial printer, I went on to college to study journalism and communications. A few years later, I spent some time managing print projects at a local university print shop…another “old school” shop.

Attending Graph Expo was like returning to familiar territory. However, like someone returning home after many years abroad, the world looked different to me. It had changed – dramatically. I was told that Graph Expo only had only one non-digital press on it’s exhibit floor.

I flashed back to my time stripping negatives and burning plates in the pre-press room. I also remembered the time my boss foolishly had me run a Multilith press with no training. I think I might still have some ink hidden under my fingernails.

Walking the exhibit hall on the third level of McCormick Place’s south building, one question I asked repeatedly to exhibitors was, “is print dead?”

The answer I got, time and time again, was “no, it’s just changing.”

Just as the printing industry has changed the way it produces written materials, the way I’m reading a book is evolving too. For now, I still prefer the hard copy version of books rather than the digital one. I love the feeling of paper and, most of the time, carrying books is not an issue. Sure, I’ll likely buy an eReader sometime in the near future. But I cannot envision a time when I get rid of all the books in my collection.

But, I do like my options.

How about you…have you gone completely digital? Have you ever read the printed and digital versions of a book simultaneously? Are you currently in book club? I’d love to read about your experience and feedback.

Update: Related to this post is a story published in The Atlantic a couple weeks ago. According to a study, 25 million people in China use only their cell phones to read books. For more information, please visit The Atlantic.

I recently finished Daniel Pink’s latest book, Drive as part of a book discussion group with some good friends of mine. It’s a book that focuses on motivation and what really drives us. In it, Pink describes what he calls “Motivation 2.0” which assumes that humans respond to rewards and punishments in their environment. This motivation, says Pink, works well when work is simple and routine. But in today’s world, where work has become increasingly more complex, humans don’t respond as well to this “carrot and stick” style of motivation. In fact, this type of motivation can have a real negative impact on productivity.

Pink goes on to describe “Motivation 3.0” which essentially describes a more intrinsic motivation. In this drive, we are motivated “less with external rewards to which and activity leads and more with the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself.” Pink describes this way of thinking as “Type I Behavior” where we are driven by, “our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and do better by ourselves and our world.” In the book, Pink goes on to describe how companies such as Google, 3M and Zappos successfully use this motivation to get the most out of it’s employees and create a culture where people want to spend their time.

I enjoyed the book. It shattered the myth in my mind that more extrinsic forms of motivation actually work. It also helped me understand why I’m intrigued by organizations with unique cultures like Google and Zappos. Overall, the book was enlightening and I was particularly impressed with many of the quotes within the book.

In Autonomy (chapter):

“The ultimate freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive – and autonomy can be the antidote.” — Tom Kelley, General Manager, IDEO

“Hire good people, and leave them alone.” — William McKnight, 3M President and Chairman

“Nothing is more important to my success than controlling my schedule. I’m most creative from five to nine a.m. If I had a boss or co-workers, they would ruin my best hours one way or another.” — Scott Adams, Dilbert creator

In Mastery:

“The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences or business.” — Teresa Amabile, Professor, Harvard University

“Figure out for yourself what you want to be really good at, know that you’ll never really satisfy yourself that you’ve made it, and accept that it’s okay.” — Robert Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor

In Purpose:

“One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself.” — Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

Overall, I enjoyed reading Drive, including his Type I toolkit, which is included at the end. Whether you manage people or not, it’s a quick read and a wise investment of your time.

How about you…have you read Drive? What do you think? How does knowing your own motivation and drive help you?

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know I’m a big Donald Miller fan. His A Million Miles in a Thousand Years was a book that got me through some tough times, especially while visiting my mother during her lengthy hospital stay.

But before I read that book, I read Miller’s 2003 bestseller, Blue Like Jazz. As someone who’s spent a good amount of time questioning and understanding my faith, I could strongly identify with Miller in the book as he explored his own. Filled with humor, wit and some deep thoughts, the book’s cover describes it as “nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality.”

After reading the book, it was great to learn that a movie was in the works…and this process was explored at length in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

But beyond the thoughts and ideas that are part of Don Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, is the interesting way this movie got produced. Back in September 2010, the movie was put on hold because additional money was needed to produce it. Enter Zach Prichard and Jonathan Frazier who launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the film. Ultimately more than 4,400 people raised $345,992 to help make Blue Like Jazz a movie reality. For more details about the campaign, visit the Save Blue Like Jazz site.

As a communications major who studied film and video production in college, I would have never dreamed something like Kickstarter would be around to help make so many creative dreams a reality.

If you’re interested in seeing the movie, there’s a month-long promotional tour through March before it opens officially on April 13. Please check the BLJ Tour Site for dates and locations.

So how about you…have you read Blue Like Jazz or plan to see the movie? What do you think of the trailer? If you could create a Kickstarter campaign, what would it be? I’d love to hear your thoughts.